Despite battling a stomach virus, a high pitch count and some shoddy defense behind him, Patriots starting pitcher Paul Phillips refused to make excuses for his shortest outing of the season.

Phillips lasted only three innings, suffering his first loss of the season in Sunday’s 6-2 decision to the Camden Riversharks at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.

The 28-year-old Phillips had been Somerset’s most consistent starter, leading the Atlantic League in wins (four) and ERA (1.76). On Sunday, however, he was chased after throwing 93 pitches, allowing an uncharacteristic four walks and five runs — three of which were unearned thanks to two of his teammates five errors.

The five miscues is a high this season in the Atlantic League. The Patriots entered the game with the league’s fewest errors at 16.

“I had a little bit of a stomach bug before the game, but it’s no excuse to not throw strikes,” admitted Phillips. “I gave it what I had. I just didn’t have a lot. You’re asking for a lot of trouble when you walk that many guys. It just wasn’t in the cards today.”

Somerset had a good chance to grab an early first-inning lead, but Jeff Nettles bounced into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. Camden broke the game open with a four-run second. Drew Macias drove in two runs with a double, but with two outs it appeared that Phillips was out of danger.

However, center fielder Jonny Tucker dropped a fly ball and Nettles threw away a routine grounder to first that allowed two unearned runs to score.

“They (Tucker and Nettles) have saved as many runs for me when I’m throwing,” said Phillips. “I know that every time it happens with those guys they feel bad about it. When I go out in pitch in five days, those guys make those plays.

“Everyone is human. I didn’t have any problem with that. I was way more upset with what I was doing. You can always tell when the ball is jumping out of your hands and today it wasn’t. They (Camden) saw blood in the water and they put the ball in play and took advantage of my mistakes.”

Camden increased its lead to 5-0 in the third when a ground ball scooted underneath second baseman Freddie Bynum’s glove, letting Macias score from third.

The Patriots avoided getting shut out for the first time this spring thanks to shortstop Rex Rundgren’s run-scoring single in the seventh and fielder’s choice in the ninth. Bynum singled in the first to extend his hitting streak to 17 games.

Ricky Brooks, making his first start of the season for Camden, went five scoreless innings and gave up just fours hits to earn the win.

Phillips has made a seamless transition from reliever, where he spent the majority of his seven-year minor league career, to starter. Going into Sunday’s outing, opponents were batting just 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position against him.

He was pitching deep into games while commanding his two and four seamers, slider and split finger. Phillips walked just nine batters in 302/3 innings.

“To be in the rotation in this league means a lot to me,” said Phillips, who was drafted by the Blue Jays in the ninth round of the 2005 MLB June Amateur Draft. “It’s a great place to get your career back on track.

“If I’m here all year — great. I love it here. I would love to be here all year. Do I want to go and make some money? Of course. But if I stay here all year I would be fine with it.”